BY MBONGENI NDLELA
MBABANE – The rise of primary school enrollment from 72% in 2007 to 92% in 2022 results in the increase in administration work for the Free Primary Education (FPE) Programme. This is why the Ministry of Education has taken a step to drastically reduce the inefficiencies that go with paperwork by digitising the FPE processes.
The announcement was made today by the Principal Secretary of the Ministry, Bhekithemba Gama. Speaking to the media earlier today, Gama said “Primary Schools rely on money from the government to operate. Delays happen sometimes which are caused by small mistakes in paperwork, which makes operations difficult for the schools. To reduce these problems, we’re piloting a digital system that is PIN-driven.”
Gama elaborated that “The system will assign each student with a unique PIN which will track them as they change grades and schools. This will really reduce the amount of work required every year and it will also reduce delays in payments to schools.”
The Principal Secretary also announced that the system is to be implemented with all Primary Schools in the country in the next academic year, after the pilot has been reviewed.
